Eventful Ride Home

After the Kylie concert, I left late and lost my way to the train station. I caught the train to Bowen Hills quite late.

At the train station, I encountered a Happy, Drunk Lady. She was about 55, and completely schnockered. She asked three girls on the opposite platform if they had cigarette machine there. Misunderstanding, she said 'what, a titty machine? Where?' She wandered off to scrounge a cigarette, and returned. I was bending over to get a Diet Coke from a vending machine, and she made as if to spank me. When I opened the soda, she grabbed it as her own (so I had to get another). Very, very funny, and very entertaining! Fortunately, she had understanding friends to guide her home.

At Bowen Hills, I caught the train back to Ferny Grove. On the train, a fellow in a yellow-and-green rugby jacket, and his girl friend, both dozed. I wondered who had won the big rugby game that evening. I moved closer, hoping to ask, if circumstances allowed.

At Enogerra station, an emergency radio message was clearly audible. There had been an accident at Ferny Grove, and we were supposed to get off instead at Keperra station, where buses would take us to Ferny Grove. The rugby fellow and his girl friend both awoke.

I approached and asked "did Great Britain or Brisbane win today's game?" The girl friend corrected: "Australia defeated Great Britain" (I later learned the score was 33 - 10). The fellow, somewhat sarcastically, asked "do you know where you are?" I cheerily answered "Barely!" He asked, concealing disappointment, "you're an American, aren't you?" I answered yes. Girl friend said, "oh, we've seen many international folks today - Germans, Czechs, etc." I continued, "you see, when I flew into Brisbane on Wednesday, I flew in with the Great Britain rugby team." Rugby guy answered, "then you must have felt right at home." I said, "no, rather...."

He interrupted: "Listen! I hate Poms (*) and I hate Yanks, the two most loser nations in the world!" Girl friend said "hush, don't be rude." At that point I broke off the conversation He then began muttering all kinds of venomous anti-American things to the girl friend, amongst which I heard the name George Bush mentioned.

At Keperra station, as we exited to the buses, I asked the conductor what had happened. He said, "I don't know, mate. I do know it was a fatality. It happens, sometimes." "A fatality!" I gasped.

At Ferny Grove, as we exitted, a City Train employee asked the Rugby Dude how he was. Rugby Dude said "I've been better." I asked the employee what had happened. He shook his head and said "lady threw herself in front of a train."

Then I drove back to Mt. Glorious to get some needed sleep.


(*) I asked Andrew where the nickname Pom (adjective Pommie) came from for the British. He suggested, ironically considering rude, insular Aussies, that the nickname comes from the French, for pom d'terres - roughly, potato-eaters.